Simon Greenwood RIP
Sadly, Simon Greenwood passed away at the beginning of December. Simon was a very active and well-known orienteer who most of us will have seen regularly at local and major events.
Besides being an enthusiastic competitor, Simon contributed enormously to the sport. He was vice chairman and president of Saxons, our neighbouring club; chairman of SEOA for over 20 years; and planned many major events.
Steve Jarvis and Karen Ashworth have shared memories below which help us to remember his genial, approachable, supportive and fun-loving nature.
Steve
I first got to meet Simon in May 1993. SO and Saxons were jointly organising a "Spring in the South" weekend. At the Saxons event Simon was advertising a fun event for Saxons members at Rivers Wood, followed by a social get-together at his home, Stone Hall. At that time I don't think anyone in SO knew that Simon's family owned the Balcombe Estate, but I was aware of Rivers Wood being just up the road from Haywards Heath as it was in my list of possible areas for us to investigate! I sought out Simon to have a chat and it went so well that it ended up with Simon not only warmly inviting Julia and I to the event at Rivers Wood (on a black & white map he'd surveyed himself), but also to the Saxons social afterwards at the Greenwood family home.
It didn't take much persuading for Simon to subsequently agree to let SO use Rivers Wood for SOGs etc. We met up at the area a few weeks later, and he gave me a guided tour as we jogged around with his black & white map. Roger got in and mapped it for us not long after, and in January 1994 I planned the first SO events there (a SENiLe night event followed by a SOG the next morning). Simon was always very amenable to my requests for SO to use the area from that point onwards and when he subsequently purchased Tickerage Wood (Great Wildgoose) from Paddockhurst he then made that available to us too - nothing was ever too much trouble.
Karen
I didn’t know Simon that well, but a couple of years ago, I was safety officer for the Peter Palmer at Kidbrook Park - the courses for which he had excellently planned. I was lucky enough to enjoy a lovely afternoon of his company, trying to work out how to avoid losing any juniors in the haha!
Simon contributed enormously to orienteering in many ways. Besides being a friend and helper, and enthusiastic competitor, he was also a local landowner who kindly encouraged us to enjoy orienteering on his estate and ‘opened many doors’ to obtain access to nearby areas.
We will all miss Simon.
Our thoughts and sympathies are with his family and friends.
The family will hold a small private cremation service for Simon and there will be a memorial service at Balcombe Church on 23rd of March 2023 at 2.30pm. Details will be posted when they are finalised.